One of the great Expressionist eyefuls from 1920s Germany, as well as an early horror anthology film. See the restored version for day-glo tints that splash at your retinas like otherworldly lights. It’s a film that embraces the dream state when a writer settles down in a wax museum and comes up with stories about three historical figures that stand as sculpted gargoyles in the shadows. The first, about the legendary Arabic ruler Harun al-Rashid (Emil Jannings), is an entertaining co
medy with a slightly dark edge and plenty of smoke and capers in the night. For the second episode, things get a hell of a lot darker as we step into the torture chambers of Ivan the Terrible (a brilliant Conrad Veidt, who transmits sadistic arrogance with world class skill through the silent screen) for some bleak irony. The best though comes last with a six-minute fever dream about Spring Heel Jack (Werner Krauss). This segment is a little masterpiece of eerie and beautiful double-exposure tricks, unreal backdrops straight from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and a story that reduces all of the twists and complications of the previous tales into a simple chase in the moonlight. It plunges into fear and finds a weird euphoria in it. Watch it and witness the still-solid foundation being laid for many generations of cinematic horror to come.